Windows XP Home: obsolete sooner than you expect

Thanks for the info..I have Xp Home Addition.
Although ..Im sure i'll be forced to buy a new computer soon. But Im not ready to give up my old faithful just yet

I seriously doubt XP has less than a year left for security updates.

 

No Offense Island Dog, but you are wrong.
XP Home is considered a Consumer product and will indeed end at the end of this year.

Link

I think you'll find that was someone's opinion on XP Home's demise. Microsoft haven't said anything officially about ending support for the OS. Another scare story, I feel.

I agree, one writers opinion. Bear in mind, like Microsoft did with Win98, extending up date support was important to the security of the entire internet, not just the individual consumer. To abandon XP home, leaves a lot of computing power up for grabs to the hackers and virus writers.

If you all will read the link I posted in #3, you will see straight from MS that it will retire mainstream support on 12/31/06. Since XP Home is considered a Consumer Product they will no longer offer support and service packs.
No, its not a scare store Pete Morton.

looks like microsoft will force people to use windows vista then

I still doubt it. They'll most likely extend support. That page probably hasn't been updated in a long time.

Why would they extend XP? Are they extending 98?

I understand what the link says but I seriously doubt that will remain in effect. 

 

They'll most likely extend support

I think they will wait until Vista is out for a bit before they make that call.
Yes, the ramifications would be severe if they don't extend it.

Yes, the ramifications would be severe if they don't extend it.

With millions of PC's on the shelves preloaded with XP when Vista is released, Microsoft is in for a crapload of lawsuits if they abandon XP Home.

With millions of PC's on the shelves preloaded with XP when Vista is released, Microsoft is in for a crapload of lawsuits if they abandon XP Home.

How...
This information has been public knowledge since the advent of the product lifecycle schedule. It is just now getting attention because that date is approaching soon.
However... on the other side, Vista was supposed to be out about 2 years before this expiration date to help offset it.

I highly suspect that this will change by the time it comes around. If it affects anyone, it is likely to affect users of the original XP Home, and perhaps SP1 users. Those that patch to SP2 should be fine. Given the great similarity between Home and Pro, I think it would be unreasonable for Microsoft not to offer similar levels of support for as long as Pro has it.

Gregory2001: They *did* extend support for 98, for over two years. Read the article.

I quote from one of the MVPs

Quote:
Microsoft is still providing critical security updates for Windows 98
and Windows Me but if you check back through previously published
support guidelines you will quickly discover that this support was
supposed to have ended years ago. But it didn't.


Secondly, Windows XP Home and Windows XP Pro (also Media Center and
Tablet versions) are all compiled from the same source code base. So
it is difficult for me to envisage that Microsoft would go to the
extra work and expense necessary so as to prevent a security update
from being installed on XP Home while still allowing it to be
installed on Pro and Tablet (and Media Center?) versions.


Thirdly, Microsoft is still continuing to sell Windows XP Home, with a
1 year warranty. So they cannot possibly end security update support
for at least a full year after they have discontinued the retail and
OEM sale of that version.


Hope this clarifies the situation.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service





http://tinyurl.com/7alhc

the expiration dates are supposed to be 2years after the launch of the latest platform. The XP ones were written ages ago on the original estimate of Vista going live 2 years ago.

Also, mainstream support doesn't mean they'll stop patching. Just means you can't call MS about it after that date.

Any PC purchased with XP Home should be covered by the computer manufacturer by warranty anyway.

However, there are many problems associated with selling stand-alone copies too close to the end of support date, because while that date is "public" it's not well known by many people at all. Most of us here consider ourselves technically saavy, but I bet the date was unknown to many of us.

Mainstream support will be extended. We have no choice. Vista took longer to release than we expected. Mainstream support will be extended by at least 2 years.
Darth Videlous
Dev Win Vista

People always have to be sounding alarms over nothing. If they still support 98, even if limited, they will be fully supporting XP for awhile. Especially where the majority of new Vista users will probably be new computer users rather than upgrades.
So there will exist quite a few XP users out there for some time.

People always have to be sounding alarms over nothing. If they still support 98, even if limited, they will be fully supporting XP for awhile.

Just another alarm, LoL, Win98 support will officially end in july 06 as per information on the MS site..

There will be no more security updates, service packs etc, etc..
Though you will still be able to get whats already been provided...

People expect to get support from Microsoft? Given the choice, I'd prefer an OS that didn't need continual updates, anyway.

Unfortunately, there is no OS that doesn't need updates, as bugs and holes are discovered in Windows, Mac, and Linux all the time.

" Unfortunately, there is no OS that doesn't need updates, as bugs and holes are discovered in Windows, Mac, and Linux all the time."

Born more of being feature rich than inherently insecure. Most of our security problems with Windows comes from Microsoft rushing to be everything to everyone, and trying to make internet browsers and media players seamlessly part of our OS. Most of these gaping holes come from these secondary functions trying to work alongside the OS instead of as an untrusted layer apart from it.

I tend to think that if they stuck to being an OS, and let the other apps be secondary, we wouldn't have had the situation we've lived with for years. Sure, there's no OS that is free from bugs and updates, but if you only count the ones involved in the core function of the OS, I think we'd have a lot less to worry about. They'd have also had less anti-trust worries.